Tag Archives: Blitz

Five-year-old Omran Daqneesh, with bloodied face, sits with his sister inside an ambulance after they were rescued following an airstrike in the rebel-held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria August 17, 2016. Picture taken August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Mahmoud Rslan

Our lives are dominated by medical concerns at the moment.

I’ve just been in the hospital again, this time with vomiting, dehydration, high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation. I drink more water than most people I know, but seem to have trouble retaining it. I’ve started supplementing my diet with a natural substance full of electrolytes. Together with prayer and moderate exercise, I hope this will keep me out of the hospital.

Of far greater concern is our ninth grandchild, who turns three months on August 24th. He has saggital craniolsinostenosis and is scheduled for surgery on November 4th. His name is Hayden. Your prayers for him are greatly appreciated.

A longer-term problem remains with his eldest brother, Aubren, who is autistic. He will be attending a new school after Labor Day, which is supposed to have a good program for autism. He attended a school last year that helped him considerably, but we are now in a different school district. Autistic children do not generally adjust well. Again, we ask for your prayers.

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At the same time, do not forget to pray: “Thy Kingdom come.” (Matthew 6:10) 72 hours ago a photo of a five-year-old boy in Aleppo went around the world and showed the continued suffering of children in Syria, in a war without end. Similar photos were taken of children during the Blitz in World War II. Some of those children were evacuated to rural areas for their own safety. Now, the pressure is on to evacuate the children to other countries. Surely western nations can secure a war-free zone near Aleppo that would provide safety to all children, while greater pressure is applied on Russia to end the war. The latest news is that the boy’s older brother has died from his injuries.

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An Orthodox Jew was attacked Friday morning in Strasbourg, France, by a man shouting “Allahu Akhbar!” The police say there was no link with terrorism. I suppose they mean there was no perceived link with Islamic State. What they should be looking for is a link with Islam. If that were the standard to judge attacks by, the general public would be better informed of the dangers from radical Islam. Almost all terror attacks are perpetrated by Muslims – whether they are affiliated with ISIS or not is a side issue.

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With so many attacks in France, Marine LePen is now the favorite to win the French presidential election next year. As Hillary Rodham Clinton is leading polls in the US, 2017 could see all four major western countries (Britain, France, Germany and the US) led by women. That would be a definite first! I should add that, beyond their gender, they have little in common.

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Donald Trump was in town on Friday. Dimondale, to be exact, just one suburb away from where we live. My son, Kurt, and I had two tickets. Trump’s speech was postponed from 2 till 5pm due to an urgent visit to Louisiana to deliver relief to flood victims, while the president was playing golf and Mrs. Clinton was “resting.” We arrived at the building three hours before the rally. The lines were unbelievably long. Lots of enthusiastic people, almost all white, waiting in line to enter. Kurt thought, correctly, that I would not be able to handle the line, so after looking around we returned home and I watched the speech on television. It was widely thought to be the best speech he had ever given. Even his detractors agreed on that point.

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Meanwhile, even the pro-Clinton Boston Globe has called on the Democratic presidential candidate to close down the Clinton Foundation, a “charity” that has helped make the Clintons very wealthy people. A spokesperson for the Foundation has said that if Mrs. Clinton wins in November, they will stop accepting foreign donations. It’s a clear conflict of interest and one of the reasons people question her ethics.

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If Trump wins, it could mean the end of the western alliances that have helped give us peace for 70 years, coinciding with America’s supremacy as the global superpower. Mr. Trump has been critical of the fact that some allies are not doing enough. That’s a fair point, but overlooks the fact that the alliances are what give America it’s leadership role. If NATO is disbanded, the US president will no longer be “the Leader of the Free world.”

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Having said that, if Mrs. Clinton wins the election, promising more of the same, the country is well on the way to national bankruptcy.

Either way, America’s period of global domination is coming to an end. In February 2017, just after the new president takes office, it will be exactly 70 years since the first perception that Washington had replaced London as the main center of global power. Seventy years. That’s how long the first superpower, Babylon, stayed at the top. (“When seventy years are completed….” Jeremiah 29:10). All great powers eventually burn out – America will be no different. America replaced the British Empire. Who will replace America?